The final list of portfolios was notified towards midnight Sunday with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah retaining the IT/BT department due to a tug-of-war between two lawmakers who wanted it.
The final list of portfolios was approved by Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, but not before Siddaramaiah was forced to make multiple changes under pressure from ministers.
Initially, MB Patil was given the IT/BT portfolio along with Industries. In a subsequent revision, IT/BT went to Priyank Kharge along with Rural Development & Panchayat Raj. Apparently, Patil opposed this saying he is keen to take up IT/BT. For now, Siddaramaiah has kept IT/BT with himself and it is likely that he will allocate it to Patil later on.
Similarly, there was some back-and-forth with the Kannada & Culture portfolio. Initially, it was given to B Nagendra who scoffed that he is not even a native Kannada speaker. The portfolio has now been given to Shivaraj Tangadagi. As demanded by Nagendra, a Valmiki, he got the ST Welfare portfolio along with Youth Empowerment & Sports.
Also, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has been given Bengaluru City Development. He is the fourth successive non-Bengaluru lawmaker to oversee the city’s affairs.
During the JD(S)-Congress coalition, the then Deputy CM G Parameshwara (Koratagere) was the Bengaluru minister. When the BJP came to power, BS Yediyurappa (Shikaripura) kept Bengaluru with himself. Then, Basavaraj Bommai (Shiggaon), too, followed suit.
Parameshwara is the home minister, a job he had between 2015 and 2017.
Guarantee-linked portfolios
Ramalinga Reddy is the transport minister to oversee the fulfillment of the Congress’ promise of free bus travel to women (Shakti). He was unhappy with the transport portfolio but was convinced after he was given Muzrai as an additional responsibility.
Siddaramaiah’s aide KJ George will head the energy department, which is under pressure to provide 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti). Senior leader KH Muniyappa is in charge of the food & civil supplies department under which comes the Anna Bhagya promise of 10 kg free rice to every BPL member.
Shivakumar’s aide Laxmi Hebbalkar is heading the women & child development department that is working out details to give Rs 2,000 per month to all woman head of households (Gruha Lakshmi).
For the unemployment allowance (Yuva Nidhi), Santosh Lad is the Labour minister, and Dr Sharanaprakash Patil the skill development minister.
It is said that there was some resistance among lawmakers in taking up guarantee-linked portfolios.
